This is a marble sculpture depicting two kids titled De handel en de scheepvaart (eng. Commerce and Transport) by Gilles-Lambert Godecharle and dated 1784. Commerce and Transport is allegorically represented by two kids, one wears a winged hat and carries a caduceus (known as a herald's staff, carried by Hermes in Greek mythology composed of two serpents- read more here) which readily identifies it as god Mercury (or Hermes); the other unknown kid sits upon a hay bale.

Gilles-Lambert Godecharle (2 December 1750 in Brussels ? 24 February 1835 in Brussels) was a Belgian sculptor, a student of Laurent Delvaux, "the only sculptor of international repute in Delvaux's retinue", who became one of two excellent representatives of Neoclassicism in the Austrian Netherlands.

In response to his early promise, he was given a stipend that empowered him to travel for his studies, first to Paris to Rome by empress Maria Theresa. Official commissions were received by him under William I of the Netherlands and under Napoleon.

His pediment sculptures for the Chamber of Representatives and the Senate of the Austrian Netherlands, now the Belgian Federal Parliament, Brussels, (1781?82) are his most notable public commission, represented nowadays by a cautious copy following his models preserved at the Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels but by far the largest part of his result was in portrait busts.

His son Napoleon Godecharle bequeathed a significant part of the family fortune to the City of Brussels, to create the Prix Godecharle for architects, sculptors and painters.

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